Coming soon · Book Profile
People and Performance Drucker
This book synthesizes Peter Drucker's foundational management principles, arguing that the purpose of management is to make people's strengths productive and their weaknesses irrelevant to enable performance and achievement.
A profile of this book is on the way.
What it’s about
A curated selection of Peter Drucker's most insightful and effective writings, 'People and Performance' serves as both an introduction and a comprehensive guide for students and practitioners of management. It lays out the core tenets of Drucker's philosophy, moving from the fundamental questions of what management is and what a manager does, to the very purpose of a business and the principles of effective organization. The book consistently emphasizes that management's primary task is to enable people to perform by focusing on their strengths, providing clear objectives, and fostering self-control. It challenges conventional wisdom on topics like profit maximization and social responsibility, arguing instead that the purpose of business is to create a customer and that successful enterprises must convert social problems into business opportunities. For anyone seeking to build and lead effective organizations that achieve results and contribute to society, this collection is an essential and enduring resource.
The through-line
- Who it’s for
- The reader is a student, aspiring manager, or current executive who wants to lead effectively, make their organization successful, and find personal fulfillment and achievement in their work.
- The problem
- Traditional management approaches are proving inadequate, leading to misdirected efforts, organizational friction, employee demotivation, and a failure to achieve desired results or innovate for the future. The reader feels frustrated, caught in a 'rat race' of solving yesterday's problems, and is uncertain how to truly motivate people, organize for performance, or make a meaningful contribution.
- The plan
- Understand the true purpose and function of management and business.
- Learn the manager's specific work: setting objectives, organizing, motivating, measuring, and developing people.
- Adopt 'Management by Objectives and Self-Control' as a core operating principle.
- Focus on making strengths productive and weaknesses irrelevant.
- Structure the organization for performance and innovation.
- The payoff
- The reader becomes an effective, respected manager who builds high-performing organizations. · People are motivated, achieving, and their strengths are made productive. · The organization thrives by creating value for customers through marketing and innovation.
See our guide
- Compensation Analyst →
- Compensation Analyst →
- Compensation Analyst →
- Compensation Analyst →
- Do Human Resources And People Management Well →
- HR Business Partner →
- HR Business Partner →
- HR Business Partner →
- HR Business Partner →
- HR Director →
- HR Director →
- HR Director →
- HR Generalist →
- HR Generalist →
- HR Generalist →
- Learning & Development Specialist →
- Learning & Development Specialist →
- Learning & Development Specialist →
- Learning & Development Specialist →
- Recruiter / Talent Acquisition →
- Recruiter / Talent Acquisition →
- Recruiter / Talent Acquisition →
Related profiles we’ve built
- An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization →
- Apa Handbook Io V2 →
- Applied Psychology in Human Resource Management →
- Armstrong’s Handbook of Strategic Human Resource Management →
- Beyond Hr Boudreau Ramstad →
- Antifragile (Incerto) →
- Coaching for Leadership - The Practice of Leadership Coaching from the Worlds Greatest Coaches (J-B US non-Franchise… →
- 50 Top Tools for Coaching A Complete Toolkit for Developing and Empowering People →
Additional reading
- Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock Potential in Yourself and Your Organization · Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey
This is the authors' previous book, which provides a deep dive into the ITC framework that is presented as a key tool in Chapter 6 and used by the fledgling DDOs in Chapter 7.
- In Over Our Heads: The Mental Demands of Modern Life · Robert Kegan
This book lays out the foundational theory of adult development and mental complexity that underpins the entire DDO concept, explaining the 'adaptive gap' that DDOs are designed to address.
- Mindset: The New Psychology of Success · Carol Dweck
The book explicitly references Dweck's work, contrasting the 'fixed mindset' (prevalent in ordinary organizations) with the 'growth mindset' that is fundamental to a DDO's culture.
- Organizational Culture and Leadership · Edgar H. Schein
Mentioned in the book, Schein's work provides a foundational understanding of organizational culture, which is the primary medium through which DDOs operate.
- The Functions of the Executive · Chester Barnard (1938)
Chapter 10 identifies this book as providing the seminal concept of 'willingness to contribute to the cooperative system,' which forms the theoretical foundation for the modern construct of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB).
- The Psychology of Careers · Donald E. Super (1957)
Chapter 3 cites this as a foundational work that established the concept of career stages, a model that has profoundly influenced career development theory and research for decades.
- Decision-making in the employment interview · E. C. Webster (1964)
Chapter 6 highlights this as the key report from the influential McGill University studies, which revealed the cognitive biases inherent in unstructured interviews and shifted the focus of research toward understanding the interviewer's decision process.
- Principles for the Validation and Use of Personnel Selection Procedures · Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP)
Multiple chapters (e.g., 13, 15) refer to this document and the related AERA/APA/NCME 'Standards' as the authoritative professional guidelines that define best practices and core concepts, like the modern unitarian view of validity, for the entire field of personnel selection.
- Managing Human Assets · Beer, M. et al. (1984)
This is a seminal book that introduced the 'Harvard framework' of HRM, emphasizing a multi-stakeholder approach that considers the interests of employees, not just shareholders. It provides a foundational 'soft' HRM perspective.
- Strategic Human Resource Management · Fombrun, C. J., Tichy, N. M. and Devanna, M. A. (1984)
This book introduced the 'Michigan framework,' which advocated for a 'hard' HRM approach focused on tightly matching HR strategy to the business strategy (vertical fit). It is a foundational text for the strategic alignment concept.